One dizzy diva

That's me! One dizzy diva. I tell ya - if it's not one thing these days, it's another.

I have some sort of ear thing going on and it's knocked me totally off kilter. And I'm not exaggerating...I often kinda fall down and have to use the walls for guidance thanks to the fiesta in my ears these days.

Getting to work today was fun. On an ordinary day, it's really not that big a deal. Hubs drops me off at the station, I take the stairs down into the tunnel, then the escalator up to the platform. I ride the train. I take three flights of stairs down from the train, am herded along like common cattle with my fellow commuters into the TTC station, I put in my fare, walk down a flight of stairs, and board the subway.

Four stops later it's another escalator ride, some more stairs, another escalator, some stairs down into Tim Hortons, wait for coffee, walk outside to get back into building, take elevator up to my floor.

That is my route from car to desk. Not too challenging, really.

Now, imagine doing those ups and downs with no depth perception, and very little in the way of balance. You're holding on to railings for dear life, cautiously optimistic that this flight of stairs will not be your undoing, that you won't be sent ass over teakettle in front of thousands of people so blinded by their own destination that they'd only hesitate to step around you as opposed to helping you get up.

Imagine negotiating escalators...moving slabs of metal with death claws just waiting to latch on to the hem of your pant leg and drag you down, down, down with one false move.

Good times, eh? That was my morning.

The rest of the day held further buckets of fun. My colleagues looking at me funny as I held on to the wall as I walked down the hall or suddenly began to careen sideways whilst attempting to walk a straight line. Sucks the cool right out of ya, I tell you what.

This all started on Friday, and at the time I chalked it up to an elongated period of adjustment to my new glasses. I ignored the whooshing in my ears and the fact that I walked a very jagged line to actually arrive at my ensuite bath that morning.

When it hadn't gone away on Saturday, I started wondering what was up. I had some driving to do during the day (JBJ came out to see me and we had a great day - Starbucks, manicures, lunch...very diva-esque) and while I was okay for the majority of the day, once I got home and sat down I realized that uh, yeah. No more driving for me until this all gets worked out!

Sunday it was increasingly worse, so I sucked it up and headed to the walk in clinic. An hour and twenty minutes later I finally had three minutes and 47 seconds with a doctor who looked at my ears and gave me the Gravol equivalent for dizziness. Told me to come back in two to three days if they didn't work, and then we'd talk antibiotics.

Well guess what? The dizzy Gravol's don't do shit.

I've taken them for well over 36 hours now and no improvement. In fact, I think it's just getting worse. Sigh... As much as I really loathe to take antibiotics unless I truly need them ('cause I have an underlying condition that, should it flare up again, can only be cured by the strong stuff, therefore I have a vested interest in not developing that resistance) it looks like this time, I might truly need them.

Everything is hard to do when you can't quite focus and have this omnipresent white noise in your ears! I'm not sick in any other way - no sniffles, no headaches, no congestion, no coughing - so I feel somewhat guilty for leaving work early because I can't do it any more. I left around 2 today and did some work from home once I got here, but man...amazing the stupid stunts your freaking ears can pull on you.

Let that be a lesson to you all then. Love your ears. Be kind to your ears. Never take your ears for granted. 'Cause when the little bastards decide it's time to wreak havoc with your body, you're gonna stumble, fall, and look drunk and stuff.

No fair. I'm all limbs akimbo without a drop of booze. That just ain't right!

And that's your daily dash. How's your diva doin'?